In general, an airbag device for a front passenger seat is configured such that an inflator generates inflation gas and an airbag is inflated and deployed by the gas are stored inside an instrument panel. The inflator is activated in response to a vehicle collision to cause the airbag to be inflated and deployed toward the inside of the vehicle, so that the occupant is restrained.
In recent years, there has been a demand for safety features to cope with various states of collisions including a collision of an obstacle with a part of a vehicle and an oblique collision of a part of a vehicle with an obstacle as well as a frontal collision in which the front end of a vehicle collides with an obstacle (such as an oncoming car) in a directly opposite direction.
Referring to the appended drawings, FIG. 1 is a plan view of a structure of a conventional vehicle (left-hand drive) provided with an airbag device for a driver seat and a front passenger seat, showing that the vehicle advances at an angle of 0° with respect to an object (obstacle) shown as a generally rectangular crosshatched object which is offset from the directly opposite position to the front of the vehicle. A driver seat airbag 16 is stored inside a steering wheel 14 in front of a driver 10 and adapted to be deployed toward the occupant in a vehicle collision. An airbag 18 for the front passenger seat is stored inside an instrument panel 24 (not shown in FIG. 1) in front of an occupant 12 of the front passenger seat and configured to be deployed toward the occupant in a vehicle collision. The airbags 16 and 18 are configured to be inflated by inflation gas supplied from an inflator (not shown) activated in response to a signal from a crash sensor.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a structure of a conventional vehicle provided with an airbag device for a driver seat and a front passenger seat, showing that the vehicle advances at a prescribed angle θ with respect to an object (obstacle) which is offset from the directly opposite position to the front of the vehicle. FIG. 3 shows how the vehicle body is turned after a collision with the object (obstacle) from its state in FIG. 2. In the situation as shown in FIG. 3, the occupant 12 of the front passenger seat could slide beside the front passenger seat airbag 18 and contact the center console between the driver seat and the front passenger seat. If this happens, the occupant 12 could be exposed to head rotation and possible injury caused by contacting the center console. An index of such brain injuries is called BRIC (Brain Rotational Injury Criteria).